The effects of exposure to natural light in the workplace on productivity of office workers

Abstract

To achieve energy efficiencies day-lighting has been used for the primary purpose of illumination as it is estimated that 30-50% of the energy cost in office buildings is spent on lighting. Over the years number of studies has been conducted to study the relationship between lighting and employees productivity and previous research indicates that lighting is important to the overall quality of the workspace. There is a need to find out relationship of perceived satisfaction with natural light on employees productivity. A total of 250 employees from various offices of Ludhiana were recruited as sample. The age range of the sample was between 25 to 50 years. The questionnaire used was an adapted and modified version of already existing scales of occupants’ satisfaction with indoor environment quality (IEQ) components of other buildings by different researchers. Results indicate that employees productivity is positively correlated with satisfaction with light in Indian population. Natural lighting is another important concern in designing an appropriate office that architects must pay attention to increase employees’ productivity.